Буржуазная пресса о самой русской английской группе Uriah Heep
Недавно в процессе разговора у меня внезапно всплыл вопрос: отчего бы это юные (то есть давно уже не юные - им всем под 40) отечественные «музыкальные обозреватели» одновременно восхищаются «творчеством» вокально-инстурментального ансамбля «Песняры» и постоянно выливают ведра помоев в адрес Uriah Heep, у которой, собственно, «Песняры» воровали если не всё, то очень и очень многое…
Естественно, тут же вспомнилась и печально знаменитая рецензия некоей Мелиссы Миллз из журнала Rolling Stone на дебютный LP Uriah Heep, и вообще неласковое отношение буржуазных критиков к данному коллективу.
Я не поленился и составил маленькую подборку того, что англо-американская пресса в свое время писала об одной из важнейших для нашего поколения рок-групп. Нижеприведенные цитаты лишний раз доказывают, что оригинальный подход обозревателей к року 70-х не является исключительной прерогативой изданий «ОМ» и «Афиша».
Начинаем, естественно, с той самой рецензии…
URIAH HEEP
Uriah Heep
Mercury
If this group makes it I'll have to commit suicide. From the first note you know you don't want to hear any more. Uriah is watered down, tenth-rate Jethro Tull, only even more boring and inane. UH is composed of five members: vocals, organ, guitar, bass, and drums. They fail to create a distinctive sound tonally; the other factor in their uninteresting style is that everything they play is based on repetitive chord riffs.
According to the enclosed promo information, Uriah Heep spent the past year in the studio, rehearsing and writing songs. No doubt their lack of performing experience contributed to the quality of the record; if they had played live in clubs they would have been thrown off the stage and we'd have been saved the waste of time, money, and vinyl.
Melissa Mills (Rolling Stone #67)
Неизвестный автор с инициалами M.P. неизвестного издания тоже пытается быть оригинальным…
URIAH HEEP
Salisbury
Vertigo
Uriah Heep are trying to be original with their Danish Fjord vocals (the sort of sound produced by someone falling into a Fjord on a cold day), and that originality is pleasing. But the thing with originality is that it can only be using so much before it becomes a tedious bore, as it does in this case. The title track, “Salisbury”, is a clever attempt at getting down to some serious composition, and for the most part it works. I’m looking forward to their next album, because this is a hundred per cent improvement over their last. The next one shоuld really be something. - M.P.
20-летний пионер Майк Сондерс пытается умничать…
URIAH HEEP
Demons And Wizards
Mercury
It's a strange time. Formerly exciting rock groups have gone musically soft, if not well on the road to outright senility, making the moniker of hard rock almost a contradiction in terms when applied to old survivors from the Sixties. But this is 1972, not 1960 something. Most of the excitement around these days is still happening in the hard rock field, and nothing in recent months proves this fact more conclusively than Uriah Heep's new album, Demons and Wizards.
To be honest, for a while I didn't think these guys were going to make it. Uriah Heep started out as awful as any group crawling out of the Cream/Jeff Beck age of British blues excess: a bit of de blooze, a few Cream cops, some poorly-conceived heavy riffs a familiar musical formula employed by not a few groups. Starting with their third album, Look At Yourself (generally monotonous but with several genuinely exciting tracks) and particularly this new album, Uriah Heep have finally gotten into their own distinctive style.
Just what Uriah Heep's style consists of, it's hard to say. The vocals are psychedelic and quavering, the guitar and rhythm section is English heavy metal rock, and Ken Hensley's organ is employed in a fashion faintly similar to Deep Purple. But then in places they sound a bit like early Procol Harum, and you forget about categories altogether. These guys are good. The first side of Demons and Wizards is simply odds-on the finest high energy workout of the year so far, tying nose and nose with the Blue Oyster Cult.
Not an ordinary song in the lot: "Easy Livin'" is a flat out fuzz-tone punk rocker, "The Wizard" is almost a combination of psychedelia (the lyrics and phased vocals) and folk rock, and the remaining three cuts on the side are generally similar in that they combine hard rock with good melodic hooks. "Traveler in Time" particularly shines in this respect.
All in all, it's an entrancing side of rock & roll. The tightness of the music is stunning at times; what few instrumental breaks there are, are concise and to the point. When I saw the group live at the Whiskey recently, these cuts were truly exciting and easily the highlight of their stage repertoire.
Side two is less outstanding, but still OK. The first two cuts are generally satisfying medium-tempo hard rock, and "Paradise/The Spell" is a long track composed of two six-minute segments. Though its high moments are scattered. it's totally listenable (no mean feat for twelve minutes) and shows off organist-songwriter-leader Ken Hensley's (the only star in Uriah Heep, but like a friend said, it's hard to be a star sitting down) various conceptual ambitions. Come to think of it, even the cover of this album is niftily psychedelic.
When I was a kid I used to read a lot about party records, with particular Stones albums always seeming to be mentioned as great party albums. Well, the party's still going and by virtue of its solid 40 minutes of energy and clatter you might call it brilliantly realized monotony in places Demons and Wizards has got to be the party album of the year so far. They may have started out as a thoroughly dispensable neo-Cream & Blooze outfit, but at this point Uriah Heep are shaping up into one hell of a first-rate modern rock band.
Mike Saunders (Rolling Stone #122)
Опять же выдержка из неизвестно какого издания, и автор неизвестен:
URIAH HEEP
Sweet Freedom
Bronze
…Like taking a sledgehammer to a panel pin; idiotic, unnecessary and doomed to failure.
Мудрецы из New Musical Express в 1976 году тоже считали, что главное в рок-музыке - это текст:
URIAH HEEP
High And Mighty
Bronze
…Ken Hensley’s lyrics give some glimpse into why he’s highly regarded in foreign parts.
Естественно, тут же вспомнилась и печально знаменитая рецензия некоей Мелиссы Миллз из журнала Rolling Stone на дебютный LP Uriah Heep, и вообще неласковое отношение буржуазных критиков к данному коллективу.
Я не поленился и составил маленькую подборку того, что англо-американская пресса в свое время писала об одной из важнейших для нашего поколения рок-групп. Нижеприведенные цитаты лишний раз доказывают, что оригинальный подход обозревателей к року 70-х не является исключительной прерогативой изданий «ОМ» и «Афиша».
Начинаем, естественно, с той самой рецензии…
URIAH HEEP
Uriah Heep
Mercury
If this group makes it I'll have to commit suicide. From the first note you know you don't want to hear any more. Uriah is watered down, tenth-rate Jethro Tull, only even more boring and inane. UH is composed of five members: vocals, organ, guitar, bass, and drums. They fail to create a distinctive sound tonally; the other factor in their uninteresting style is that everything they play is based on repetitive chord riffs.
According to the enclosed promo information, Uriah Heep spent the past year in the studio, rehearsing and writing songs. No doubt their lack of performing experience contributed to the quality of the record; if they had played live in clubs they would have been thrown off the stage and we'd have been saved the waste of time, money, and vinyl.
Melissa Mills (Rolling Stone #67)
Неизвестный автор с инициалами M.P. неизвестного издания тоже пытается быть оригинальным…
URIAH HEEP
Salisbury
Vertigo
Uriah Heep are trying to be original with their Danish Fjord vocals (the sort of sound produced by someone falling into a Fjord on a cold day), and that originality is pleasing. But the thing with originality is that it can only be using so much before it becomes a tedious bore, as it does in this case. The title track, “Salisbury”, is a clever attempt at getting down to some serious composition, and for the most part it works. I’m looking forward to their next album, because this is a hundred per cent improvement over their last. The next one shоuld really be something. - M.P.
20-летний пионер Майк Сондерс пытается умничать…
URIAH HEEP
Demons And Wizards
Mercury
It's a strange time. Formerly exciting rock groups have gone musically soft, if not well on the road to outright senility, making the moniker of hard rock almost a contradiction in terms when applied to old survivors from the Sixties. But this is 1972, not 1960 something. Most of the excitement around these days is still happening in the hard rock field, and nothing in recent months proves this fact more conclusively than Uriah Heep's new album, Demons and Wizards.
To be honest, for a while I didn't think these guys were going to make it. Uriah Heep started out as awful as any group crawling out of the Cream/Jeff Beck age of British blues excess: a bit of de blooze, a few Cream cops, some poorly-conceived heavy riffs a familiar musical formula employed by not a few groups. Starting with their third album, Look At Yourself (generally monotonous but with several genuinely exciting tracks) and particularly this new album, Uriah Heep have finally gotten into their own distinctive style.
Just what Uriah Heep's style consists of, it's hard to say. The vocals are psychedelic and quavering, the guitar and rhythm section is English heavy metal rock, and Ken Hensley's organ is employed in a fashion faintly similar to Deep Purple. But then in places they sound a bit like early Procol Harum, and you forget about categories altogether. These guys are good. The first side of Demons and Wizards is simply odds-on the finest high energy workout of the year so far, tying nose and nose with the Blue Oyster Cult.
Not an ordinary song in the lot: "Easy Livin'" is a flat out fuzz-tone punk rocker, "The Wizard" is almost a combination of psychedelia (the lyrics and phased vocals) and folk rock, and the remaining three cuts on the side are generally similar in that they combine hard rock with good melodic hooks. "Traveler in Time" particularly shines in this respect.
All in all, it's an entrancing side of rock & roll. The tightness of the music is stunning at times; what few instrumental breaks there are, are concise and to the point. When I saw the group live at the Whiskey recently, these cuts were truly exciting and easily the highlight of their stage repertoire.
Side two is less outstanding, but still OK. The first two cuts are generally satisfying medium-tempo hard rock, and "Paradise/The Spell" is a long track composed of two six-minute segments. Though its high moments are scattered. it's totally listenable (no mean feat for twelve minutes) and shows off organist-songwriter-leader Ken Hensley's (the only star in Uriah Heep, but like a friend said, it's hard to be a star sitting down) various conceptual ambitions. Come to think of it, even the cover of this album is niftily psychedelic.
When I was a kid I used to read a lot about party records, with particular Stones albums always seeming to be mentioned as great party albums. Well, the party's still going and by virtue of its solid 40 minutes of energy and clatter you might call it brilliantly realized monotony in places Demons and Wizards has got to be the party album of the year so far. They may have started out as a thoroughly dispensable neo-Cream & Blooze outfit, but at this point Uriah Heep are shaping up into one hell of a first-rate modern rock band.
Mike Saunders (Rolling Stone #122)
Опять же выдержка из неизвестно какого издания, и автор неизвестен:
URIAH HEEP
Sweet Freedom
Bronze
…Like taking a sledgehammer to a panel pin; idiotic, unnecessary and doomed to failure.
Мудрецы из New Musical Express в 1976 году тоже считали, что главное в рок-музыке - это текст:
URIAH HEEP
High And Mighty
Bronze
…Ken Hensley’s lyrics give some glimpse into why he’s highly regarded in foreign parts.